I feel old.

[EvilRoeSlade]

I've been playing this game for 7 years, give or take a year.  My first character was the son of a templar according to his n00b background, was miraculously approved, and got killed by a soldier PC about 4 hours into the game.

Now I'm a grizzled veteran.  I remember people used to post about how their half-giant rukkians wandered the land with a steel hammer in each hand, how mantis vivaduans spam-casted in taverns, halfling merchants bowed to templars as they piloted their wagons down the road, there was no Tuluk (the highlight of the period), and the soldiers were all decked out in bronze equipment.

That was a different game from the one we had now, and suddenly we're moving into a new era.  The one that I've grown used to for the past seven years will be forever gone.

It makes me feel a bit sad, as excited as I am to see Armageddon Reborn.

Who else is old?

[Ghost]

Compared to you, I am a n00b.

But I remember the good old times when nobody knew anything about magick, when there were a lot of active noble houses and there were plentiful active PC servants in each house, the city (at least Allanak) was alive.

I remember the "5 gith" who would insta kill anything with a spear throw.

I remember those 4 gith NPC groups, randomly walking around allanak and attacking anything.  Those were the days when you seriously would not want to be outside the city.

[Vettrock]

I've been playing for about 7 years as well(around 2000), with a 3 year break in the middle.  (So I guess that is 4 years).  I also played a little bit back in 1994-1995.  But back then the game was closed on weekends except for immortals and their buddies. And during the weekdays there was a 40 player limit so if you didn't log on by like 5pm, the game was full, so I never really got too into it.

[Armaddict]

Been playing since 1998 or 1999.  Yeah.  Pretty old, heh.

[Kronibas]

I've been playing since the winter of 98 or 99.. I can't quite recall which one.

Since then, especially if the past few years, there have been huugggee changes within the game.  So many
new aspects of the world have arisen that I can't help but to feel like a noob at times.  That's an awesome
thing, ain't it?

[mansa]

I remember when Kurac was banned from Allanak.

I remember when Allanak ruled the known world.

I remember when Kadius employed 30% of the playerbase.

I remember immortals saying, 'The Kadian Storeroom causes the game to lag 10 seconds every time the computer tries to save the zone.  Please delete all the piles of 100 feathers and 100 bones.  Keep it around 12 each, eh?'

I remember when Blackwing was still around.

[Bebop]

I have been here going on three years soon.

From the way EVR describes it, it sounds like we are moving back to the older game in a way.  I'm starting to feel slightly old but not as much so as some of you veterans.  One day I'll be able to say I remember when we used to play without any metal!  And I can already say I remember Saturday downtime, the Atrium and the Copper Wars.  I had a templar briefly during that time and I remember a whole unit of archers attacking me down to 1 hp in one hit.  Ah good times.  I remember the south was a really great place to play when I first started, I had so many unique experiences and it was very newbie friendly.  My first interaction was with this crazy elf.  A templar dragged him off and my first character kept a broken pot shard on her for the entire length of her life (three real life months).  I remember the Atrium offering to train me as an aide and I kept insisiting that wasn't the life for me, because OOCly I didn't think a warrior would be good at it.  I remember when a certain character, whom has grown very powerful now used to pray with me and another character outside the city gates and used to come to my apartment for food but I can't say who.

[jstorrie]

I remember Bela.

[Bogre]

About four years.

I got you beat, ERS, my first character's background was an elven 'rinthi bastard noble. Not even half-elven, haha. Think they approved it and just changed the background.

[Xygax]

I was playing in 1993, and I can prove it.

-- X

[LoD]

I've been playing since the game started, over 15 years ago.

I remember when:

• There was no Red Storm, Cenyr, Tuluk, Luir's, Blackwing, or any other civilization besides Steinal and Allanak.
• There were names instead of short descriptions.
• You could still use 'who' and 'tell' like hack and slash games.
• The Doomsbringer, Arch Magi, Shadow, and Tan Muark were all real clans.
• Walking through Steinal.
• The Necromancer, Shadowdancer, and Illusionist classes.
• Being able to see your skills and skill percentages.
• Merchants only had 6 skills (haggle, value, scan, listen, cavilish, and pilot)
• There was no crafting skills.
• Mantis and halflings chilling out in Tuluk.
• Playing the owner of the wagon that now lies at the bottom of the gulch between Luir's and 'nak
• When you could join the Merchant Houses by finding an NPC and paying him 500 coins to join.
• When they didn't have limits on how many times you could offer/barter for a better price.
• When NPC's used to respawn carrying steel, iron, or bronze weapons.
• When PC descriptions could be: the black-hooded dwarf, the red-robed elf, the man with strange eyes.

So, yeah, I feel old sometimes too.

-LoD

[Saitorr]

LoD wins.

As for me, it's been 10 years.  I remember going to the Chicago APM, staying in a room with Gigantic J, Ender and mansa ("Look, it's the Byn sergeants!")..  Meeting LoD, Clegane, Sanvean, Halaster, Jhalavar, Karianna, to drop a few names.

Also, my first characters consisted of someone who could read and write (heh...  n00b), and a dwarf whose focus was to marry a human woman.

I've said it before, but playing for a little under half your life is...  weird.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I don't feel so old ... but I've only been playing for 8 years.

[Maybe42or54]

I definately remember Bela. I remember Pearl the founder of the Atrium. Kishime Fale (I still have good dreams of him, I've also recently stumbled upon the fact I emulate him a lot.) I remember Delanora Tor and her gang of misfits. The first things since I really got into Arm, Sunjaal?

[Bushranger]

I've been playing since about 94 and I remember some of the good old days as well.

I remember the ISCA BBS as a primary means of communication for Arm players and staff.
I remember Ginka being taken down for a few days maintenance and then having several weeks of downtime. GAHH That was frustrating.
I remember being apprenticed to the flower-tattooed Mul and getting chided after touching the corpse on the road near Allanak.
I remember drinking in Flints!
I remember having to come up with an account name for this new fangled account system of character tracking on the mud.
I remember playing a lost lord of steinal!
I remember meeting a magicker in the wastes and going "Oh! Fuck!" both IC and OOC 
I remember playing a Blackwing and hearing the tale of **CENSORED BY REQUEST**, that was a good one.

So many memories, Armageddon is a cherished game.

[YellowCactus]

Hi ERS,
    Your not old at all man.  I remember when we met playing Armageddon 5 years ago.  Your eternal dude!
-Yc

[Rindan]

I am not actually sure how long I have been playing.  I am pretty sure it is around 10 years.  My best memories were when I had my first "real" character that really lived a good long time.  This was back into at least 2000-2001 I think.  Tuluk 1.0 was still kicking.  I recall hearing about Tuluk getting destroyed, and was around when Allanak snapped up the rubble.  I recall the time when Allanak ruled pretty much the entire known world.  Sujaal was my sergeant.

Maybe this is just hindsight memory speaking, but I recall that as being an absolutely great time.  There were some excellent RPers at the time.  The playerbase was concentrated in Allanak, and as a result we had sick player densities.  The noble houses were murdering each other for a lack of external enemy to whomp on.  Clans were packed with awesome internal clan struggles (at least in the Byn and Kurac).  Unlike in other times, player densities were high enough were clans were dealing with internal strife.  The Byn in particular was packed with people and so there were always great interpersonal conflicts to be had. 

In fact, I felt like that time was the greatest time for conflict because the people you were going to conflict with were on top of you.  An Allanaki / Tuluk conflict is a conflict that happens once every RPT.  A noble house vs noble house, Byn vs Byn, or Kurac vs Kurac conflict is one that is roaring each time you log in.  Over the course of the year or so that that character was alive, I saw magik performed exactly twice.  Once was by a Templar using it on me, and the other time was by a Krathi raider.  The Krathi raider attack was the first time I ever saw magik used in the game.  Seeing a gemmed was a rare event.  Talking to one was even rarer.  If I had seen any sign of magik in the desert, I would have promptly ran back to town, told a Templar, and expected a Templar lynch squad to go out and deal with it.  If I could snap my fingers and send the game back in time to any point, it would have been then, right after Tuluk got sacked.  Those were awesome times and were the height of what I think of when I think Zalanthas.  Very low fantasy, constant mundane conflict, great leaders, and a changing world.

[ale six]

And here I was feeling old. My first character was an aide to YC's noble and then later ERS' concubine. And to my knowledge, I've never even played in a clan with LoD, just heard about all his characters.

I remember when the Atrium was open. (I don't miss it much anymore.)
I remember when you had to go through a PC Nenyuki to rent an apartment.
I remember when there were no PC Lirathans in Tuluk, and the only open noble houses were Winrothol and Tenneshi.
I remember the days before command emotes.
I remember when seeing a magick item or magick in general was a HUUUUUUUUUGE deal. I think I went two and a half years before I even saw one.

I'm curious, for you super-old people who played back in ye olde days that LoD and Rindan and people talk about... what phase of Armageddon did you like best?

[Rindan]

I'm curious, for you super-old people who played back in ye olde days that LoD and Rindan and people talk about... what phase of Armageddon did you like best?

The day Tuluk burned was the best day in Armageddon history.  It ushered in a golden age of world wide Allanaki rule.  Under Allanaki rule, Tuluk became the coolest it ever was or has been.  Sure, there was no "Tuluk" but there was a merry old northern rebellion that had very lively (and violent) interactions with the most benevolent ruling Allanaki overlords.  That is to say nothing of Allanak itself.  With Tuluk a smoldering ruin, Allanak merrily turned in on itself and began to work furiously at tearing itself apart.  Magik was awesomely rare.  It was an overall merry time.  Armageddon at this point was mature, and so the RP was as top notch as it is today (at least from my recollection).  That entire time period made me a big fan of one city split into factions rule.

[My 2 sids]

Holy cow, I guess I was playing waaaay back in 2000!     Heh, even after a three year break I still came back!!

I remember Pearl, I remember her vnpc babies growing up to PC teenagers.  I remember the game being down on Saturday mornings and Nenyuk had PCs to rent the houses.

I remember reading nearly every single document before creating a character and still not knowing a dang thing lol.  I remember the day my PC mouthed off to a templar (and lived to tell about it).   I remember the first time someone (think it was a half-giant) recognized my PC was a twin of another PC  (that was a lot of work on descriptions... no one reads descriptions).  Oh!  And I remember my first PC was describing his background and the other PC's player going, "OOC:  That couldn't really happen"  (my first PC had some fun IC stories!!)

[Flying Erdlu]

1994 and I've got some old ISCA logs to prove it

I remember:

• Saturday Invite Only Quest Days
• Having it be actually dangerous to travel between Luirs and Tuluk
• VERY strict application reviews - you would be rejected for a simple typo of teh instead of the, for example.
• Character apps taking approximately a week for review and then getting rejected so easily only to wait another week
• Belgoi copper bells
• Teleporting onto the Gypsy wagon and getting killed by my neighbor's gypsy PC for it. Thanks Praetorian - yes, I'm still grumpy about that!
• The fear you felt when you saw, "The Shade of Nessalin sends,....."
• The first APM in Iowa City. We got to see the original server Thrash, play rugby (players got stomped on by the staff, iirc) and the Allanaki Flame Cheese was invented
• The ironsword siege of Allanak during a time when they took down the character application system to overaul it into the base of what we currently use today - If you died during this time, you were SOL until the app system was finished or you could sweet talk an Imm into manually hooking you up.
• And finally....pouched belts used to be DA BOMB! They were ultra rare and just awesome to have another wearable container besides a backpack.

What  time period do I like best? Now. Our staff is fabulous, fair and dedicated. Some things are looser now than they used to be, but other things are tighter, creating a wonderful balance. Are there some things I like better about the old days? Sure...mostly I think a lot of the harshness is gone. It's a softer, nicer mud these days. But all in all, we've come a LONG way and  am happy to have been involved in so many different ways.

[Throttle]

I've got some old ISCA logs to prove it

I'd love to see.

[jhunter]

'95 for me. I remember my first pc entering the game and I took a seat in Flint's, everyone kept staring, looking away quickly, blushing, etc. I couldn't figure out why until another character approached my table and asked to sit with me...then I got something like this: "Uhh....why're you naked?" I believe this person ( I can't remember their name atm.) Took me to get some clothes and then hooked me up with Khann. Died to soldiers during a "sparring incident".
My second pc was a 'rinthi mul that was recruited by a man named Arendor (I think) into The Guild. Played the pc until I had to take a break for a few years and the account was deleted before I returned.

[Vettrock]

I remember Bela.

I also remember Bela.  I remember a sun-burned dwarf named shade who helped out my first and second characters.  I remember searching for days for a Byn Sergeant so I could join the Byn.  And then after I joined, There was never anyone else around to spar with etc, as I was playing European Hours.

I remember the ISCA BBS and the thrash server.  I remember there some some immortal whose isca name was the babbling wombat, although I don't remember the name of the immortal.

[Flying Erdlu]

I remember the ISCA BBS and the thrash server.  I remember there some some immortal whose isca name was the babbling wombat, although I don't remember the name of the immortal.

Azroen